Using Traffic Exchanges to Promote Affiliate Programs

Hello,

Marlon here.

In today’s lesson, we’re going to discuss one of the major sources
of traffic for affiliates – exchanges. If you’re unfamiliar with
exchanges, you will want to read this over carefully and consider
printing it out.

One of the best ways in which you can promote affiliate programs
is through various traffic exchanges. Almost all well-defined,
robust niches on the Internet have some form of traffic exchange.
For instance, casinos, gaming sites, niche forums, and Internet
marketing sites all have some form of traffic exchange system. IM,
in particular, has dozens of exchanges.

A traffic exchange can serve multiple functions; however, in most
cases, it does two important things: 1) it allows you to surf
sites, gain credits, and then cash in those credits; and 2) it
allows you to put banners or dynamically-generated link boxes on
your site that will generate credits, which you can then cash in.
Cashing in credits, with most exchanges, results in a certain
amount of traffic being drive to your site via the exchange site
or via banners on other sites that are members of the exchange.

A good place to start when working with traffic exchanges is to
determine which ones are most reputable and which ones have
reasonable point systems. For instance, some traffic exchanges
allow users to cheat and some have bad systems of exchange, which
heavily favor paying members over non-members. You will want to
find the best possible exchange given the amount of money you are
willing to spend and the product you are marketing.

I suggest using the following sites, which list top traffic
exchanges:
http://www.paramind.net/paramindtrafficexchanges.html and

http://www.trafficexchangelist.com

Additionally, you may want to talk to friends to see if any
particular exchange has worked well for them. There are hundreds
of different exchanges available. The key is finding the one that
will work best for your particular situation.

One exchange you may want to consider is Traffic Round-Up. You can
find it at the following URL: http://www.trafficroundup.com/.
Like most exchanges, it offers several different types of
programs, depending on how much you are willing to pay. If you
select a completely free membership, you will have to view three
sites in order to have one visitor sent to yours. While the views
will only last 10 seconds, the same will be true about yours
(unless you are able to persuade visitors to stay longer). If you
purchase access to a higher level program, you will get free views
and you will only have to view 2 or 1 site in order to have 1
person view yours.

As you check out Traffic Round Up, as well as the other exchanges
included in the recommended lists, you will want to take the
following things into consideration: 1) what is the input-output
ratio for each traffic exchange; 2) how much traffic does this
exchange actually receive; 3) how quickly will they place my ads
after they are setup. On the first question, you will want to find
an exchange that minimizes the amount of time you have to spend
surfing and maximizes the amount of credits you receive. For the
second question, you will want to make sure that the exchange you
select is bustling with traffic from the right places. Last, you
will want to find an exchange that puts your ads up in a matter of
hours (or a day) – rather than one that could take as long as a
week or several weeks.

Now, once you have selected an optimal exchange, you will want to
determine the best way in which you can use it to maximize the
amount of high-quality traffic you extract from it. You will want
to answer the following questions to aid yourself in determining
this: do I earn credits from impressions or clicks? And do I lose
credits based on impressions or clicks?

This is important to ask, as different exchanges have different
policies on this issue. If you lose credits based on impressions,
you will want to make sure that you get the absolute largest
amount of clicks per impressions. This will involve over-hyping
your ads and creating flashy banners (if they allow them). In
contrast, if you are getting charged per click, you will want to
make sure your ads ONLY appeal to the most interested buyers.
Whichever route you take, make sure that it is matched up with a
model for maximum revenue generation. You should never take a
middle-of-the-road approach. Find out the exact details of the
exchange; and then carefully construct a good strategy for your
particular situation.

The last thing you will want to consider when using a traffic
exchange is precisely what you should promote. You already have a
product in mind – probably an affiliate product – but how will you
promote it? Will you direct visitors to the affiliate page? Will
you direct them to a page on your site which features the product?
Or will you direct them to an opt-in form, which will capture
their information and then coax them into buying over a period of
time?

There’s no ‘best’ way to answer this question. In some cases, you
will get a higher return if you market the product directly,
rather than sending visitors to an opt-in form. In other cases,
you will need to make multiple contacts with visitors before you
can expect a sale. For this reason, you will want to test, rather
than applying any sure rule of thumb. However, starting out, you
may want to first try direct sales (to see if the product even
sells) by sending the visitor to your affiliate link. If – and
only if – people make some purchases, then consider investing the
time in an opt-in page, a membership to http://www.aweber.com and
a high-quality autoresponder series.

Thanks again for keeping up with the series. Don’t forget to look
out for our next lesson.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders